Can Tiger Woods Save His Image?

Tiger Woods can bounce back from his shocking three-woman scandal affair, and the best advice experts can give him is to – finally – be honest.

“Conventional wisdom says that he needs to be totally open about everything that has happened,” crisis management consultant and 42 West principal partner Allan Mayer tells HollywoodLife.

“There’s one basic rule, not just in crisis management but in communications in general,” he adds. “If you don’t tell your story, someone else is going to tell it for you, and chances are you won’t like the way it comes out. It’s entirely possible that there is some overriding reason why he shouldn’t be telling his own story, but it better be a pretty compelling reason.”

Tiger has taken the first steps to cleaning up his battered public image by posting his remorse to the public on his official website. “I have let my family down and I regret those transgressions with all of my heart. I have not been true to my values and the behavior my family deserves. I am not without faults and I am far short of perfect. I am dealing with my behavior and personal failings behind closed doors with my family. Those feelings should be shared by us alone,” he wrote this morning.

According to Mayer, this is a good move, and Tiger’s fans should be coming back with a vengeance. “Popular culture has always shown it’s very forgiving,” he says. “Everyone loves a public figure who has been virtually untarnished, gets muddy and then is remorseful – society can forgive them.”

Joe Dolce, creative partner at DolceGoldin Media Strategy and Public Relations, thinks he should go even further, “Personally, I prefer the way David Letterman confronted the story, boldly and immediately without hoping it would go away and letting it dribble out for days. He’s inevitably going to have to deal with this and I’d like to hear his voice and see his face sooner than later.”

But what about his endorsement deals? Will he lose AT&T, Gatorade, Nike and Gillette? “He’s so successful that he doesn’t need to work or have endorsement deals at this point,” says Mayer. “He’s so successful that he can ignore what the public wants. He’s at the pinnacle.”